Method of forming stacked trench contacts and structures formed thereby

ABSTRACT

Methods and associated structures of forming a microelectronic device are described. Those methods may include forming a structure comprising a first contact metal disposed on a source/drain contact of a substrate, and a second contact metal disposed on a top surface of the first contact metal, wherein the second contact metal is disposed within an ILD disposed on a top surface of a metal gate disposed on the substrate.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/985,691, filed Aug. 5, 2020, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/382,414, filed Apr. 12, 2019, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,784,201, issued Sep. 22, 2020, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/925,151, filed Mar. 19, 2018, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,297,549, issued May 21, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/419,141, filed Jan. 30, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,922,930, issued Mar. 20, 2018, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/220,270, filed Jul. 26, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,559,060, issued Jan. 31, 2017, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/994,109, filed Jan. 12, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,437,546, issued Sep. 6, 2016, which is continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/581,498, filed Dec. 23, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,252,267, issued Feb. 2, 2016, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/284,808, filed May 22, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,293,579, issued Mar. 22, 2016, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/215,991, filed Jun. 30, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,803,245, issued Aug. 12, 2014. Each of these applications is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Contact to gate shorts become an increasingly difficult problem for integrated circuits with scaled dimensions. While a metal gate process which forms a salicide through the contact hole may be beneficial in reducing such shorts, a contact process that increases the contact to gate registration margin is necessary to further reduce the contact to gate shorts to a manufacturable level.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

While the specification concludes with claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming that which is regarded as the present invention, the advantages of this invention can be more readily ascertained from the following description of the invention when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGS. 1a-1g represents structures according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that show, by way of illustration, specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. It is to be understood that the various embodiments of the invention, although different, are not necessarily mutually exclusive. For example, a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described herein, in connection with one embodiment, may be implemented within other embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. In addition, it is to be understood that the location or arrangement of individual elements within each disclosed embodiment may be modified without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims, appropriately interpreted, along with the full range of equivalents to which the claims are entitled. In the drawings, like numerals refer to the same or similar functionality throughout the several views.

Methods and associated structures of forming a microelectronic structure are described. Those methods may include forming a contact opening in a first ILD disposed on a substrate, wherein a source/drain contact area is exposed, forming a silicide on the source/drain contact area, forming a first contact metal in the contact opening to fill the contact opening, polishing the first contact metal to planarize a top surface of the first contact metal with a top surface of a gate disposed on the substrate, depositing a second ILD on the top surface of the gate, forming a second contact opening in the second ILD, and forming a second contact metal in the second contact opening, wherein the first and second contact openings are conductively coupled. Methods of the present invention increase the contact to gate registration margin and reduce contact to gate shorts.

Methods of the present invention are depicted in FIGS. 1a-1g . FIG. 1a shows a cross section of a portion of a transistor structure 100 comprising a substrate 102, and a gate 104, which may comprise a metal gate in some embodiments, and may comprise such metal gate materials as hafnium, zirconium, titanium, tantalum, or aluminum, or combinations thereof, for example. The gate 104 may comprise a top surface 105. The substrate 102 may be comprised of materials such as, but not limited to, silicon, silicon-on-insulator, germanium, indium antimonide, lead telluride, indium arsenide, indium phosphide, gallium arsenide, gallium antimonide, or combinations thereof.

The transistor structure 100 may further comprise a spacer material 106, that may be adjacent and in direct contact with the gate 104. The spacer material 106 may comprise a dielectric material in some cases, such as but not limited to silicon dioxide and/or silicon nitride materials. The transistor structure 100 may further comprise a nitride etch stop layer (nesl) 108, that may be adjacent and in direct contact with the spacer material 106. The nesl 108 may serve as an etch stop layer in some embodiments. The transistor structure 100 may further comprise a first interlayer dielectric (ILD) 110 that may serve as an isolation layer in some embodiments, and may be disposed adjacent to and in direct contact with the nesl 108 in some cases.

A sacrificial stopping layer 112 may be formed on the top surface 105 of the gate 104, that may comprise a nitride and/or a silicon carbide material in some cases (FIG. 1b ). A resist layer 114 may be formed on the stopping layer 112 utilizing any suitable patterning process, such as a photolithography process, for example. The resist layer 114 may be formed to define an opening 116, such as a trench contact opening 115, for a source/drain region 103 of the substrate 100. A portion of the stopping layer 112 and a portion of the ILD 110 may be disposed on top surfaces of the gate 104, the adjacent spacer material and on the adjacent nesl that are disposed on the substrate.

In an embodiment, a dry etch process may be utilized to form the opening 116, in which portions of the stopping layer 112 and the first ILD 110 may be removed. In an embodiment, the etching process may comprise an oxide etch that may be selective to the nitride etch stop layer (nesl) 108 and to the spacer material 106, and may remove the first ILD 110 in a substantially anisotropic manner, leaving the nesl 108 and the spacer material 106 substantially intact. In other words, the oxide ILD may etch at a much higher etch rate in the etch process chemistry than the spacer material 106 and the nesl 108. In an embodiment, a portion of the stopping layer 112 and a portion of the ILD 110 may be removed that are disposed on top surfaces of the gate 104, the an adjacent spacer 106, and on the adjacent nesl 108, to form the contact opening 116.

The patterning process may result in a mis-registration of the resist layer 114, wherein the resist layer 114 may be mis-aligned so that a portion 113 of the spacer material 106 may be exposed during the formation of the opening 115, and a portion 111 of the first ILD 110 may remain covered with the resist layer 114. The amount of mis-registration of the resist layer 114 may vary depending upon the particular application, but may become more significant as the aspect ratio of the opening 116 increases. For example, microelectronic devices comprising small geometries will be more likely to form a short between the contact and the gate due to resist layer 114 mis-alignment.

Subsequently, the nitride etch stop layer 108 may be removed that is disposed on a portion of the source/drain region 103 of the substrate 100 utilizing a nitride etching process, for example, so that a source/drain contact area 107 may be exposed (FIG. 1c ). Alternatively, the nitride etch stop layer 108 may not be present on the substrate 102, and thus the nesl 108 will not need to be removed. In another embodiment, the nesl etch may be optional, depending on the selectivity of the ILD removal process, such that when the ILD etch is selective to the substrate, the nesl etch does not need to be performed.

A depth 117 into the exposed portion 113 of the spacer material 106 may be formed by the nesl 108 etch and/or the ILD etch due to the mis-registration of the resist layer 114. The depth 117 that may be created may vary depending upon the particular process parameters. In an embodiment, the depth 117 correlates/corresponds to an etch time of the contact etch (nesl and/or ILD etch). The resist layer 114 may then be removed and a salicide 118 may be formed on/in the source/drain contact area 107 using any suitable salicide process as are known in the art, such as but not limited to a nickel salicide process and/or other such salicide process (FIG. 1d ).

A first contact metal 120 may be formed on the salicide 118 and may fill the opening 116 (FIG. 1e ). In an embodiment, the first contact metal 120 may be formed utilizing a process possessing good gap fill properties to ensure that there are little to no voids formed in the contact opening 116. Such a process may include a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, for example. A polishing process 123 may subsequently be performed, such as a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process, for example, to remove the first contact metal 120 (FIG. 1f ) and the stopping layer 112. The first contact metal may comprise at least one of tungsten, titanium, titanium nitride and titanium tungsten in some cases, but may comprise any suitable contact material, according to the particular application.

In an embodiment, the first contact metal 120 may be planarized with a planarized top surface 121 of the gate 104, i.e., it may be polished by the polishing process 123 so that a top surface 122 of the first contact metal 120 may be planar with the planarized top surface 121 of the gate 104. The polishing process 123 needs to comprise a sufficient amount of over-polish time so that any stringers that could connect the contact metal 120 with the gate 104 are removed. The polishing process 123 additionally removes the depth 117 of the exposed portion 113 of the spacer material 106 that was due to the mis-registration of the resist layer 114 (referring back to FIG. 1c ). In an embodiment, the first contact metal 120 may comprise a non-tapered first contact metal 120.

An additional gate etch stop layer 124 may be formed on the planarized top surface 121 of the gate 104, and on the top surface 122 of the contact metal 120 (FIG. 1g ). A second ILD 126 may be formed on the additional gate etch stop layer 124. A second opening may be formed (not shown) that may be filled with a second contact metal 128, that may be conductively coupled and may form an ohmic contact with the first contact metal 120, and that may be disposed on the top surface 122 of the first contact metal. The second opening may be formed such that the second contact metal 128 can be tapered and a bottom portion 129 of the second contact metal 128 can be very small compared to a top portion 130 of the second contact metal 128, since the salicide does not have to be formed through this second opening.

In an embodiment, the top portion 130 comprises a larger diameter 131 than a diameter 132 of the bottom portion 129 of the second contact metal 128. The large taper of the second contact metal 128 may increase the contact-to-gate registration window significantly compared to prior art single contact processes. Thus, a stacked contact structure 133 may be formed that is higher than the gate 104. The metal to metal contact of the first contact structure 120 and the second contact structure 128 affords much more flexibility on the shape of the stacked contact structure 133 (that may comprise a vertically stacked dual contact structure) within a transistor structure, thus increasing the amount of mis-registration error process window without creating the possibility of touching (shorting) the gate 104.

Embodiments of the present invention enable a simple, unique method for integrating a stacked trench contact with a metal gate process, such as a dual metal gate process, for example, that increases contact to gate registration margin and decreases the aspect ratio of the contact during a salicide process. In an embodiment, the source drain trench contact structure consists of two vertically stacked contacts. The metal gate may be formed before the first source/drain contact, a salicide may be formed after the first source/drain contact is opened and before the second source/drain contact opening is formed. Prior art contact processes have used a single trench contact process, which may not be scalable to very small technology nodes.

Further advantages of this invention include the enabling of the formation of larger contacts with better contact to gate registration margin with relatively small process changes as compared with prior art processing. The embodiments of the present invention allow for an increased process window for contact mis-alignment that will not lead to a change in overlap capacitance of a microelectronic device, such as a transistor, fabricated according to the methods of the present invention.

Although the foregoing description has specified certain steps and materials that may be used in the method of the present invention, those skilled in the art will appreciate that many modifications and substitutions may be made. Accordingly, it is intended that all such modifications, alterations, substitutions and additions be considered to fall within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. In addition, it is appreciated that certain aspects of microelectronic structures are well known in the art. Therefore, it is appreciated that the Figures provided herein illustrate only portions of exemplary microelectronic structures that pertain to the practice of the present invention. Thus the present invention is not limited to the structures described herein. 

What is claimed is:
 1. An integrated circuit structure, comprising: a first gate structure; a second gate structure laterally spaced apart from the first gate structure; a third gate structure laterally spaced apart from the second gate structure; a first source or drain region between the first and second gate structures; a second source or drain region between the second and third gate structures; a first contact structure over the first source or drain region; a second contact structure over the second source or drain region; a third contact structure in contact with the first contact structure, the third contact structure having a top portion wider than a bottom portion; a first dielectric spacer laterally between the first gate structure and the first contact structure; a second dielectric spacer laterally between the second gate structure and the first contact structure; a third dielectric spacer laterally between the second gate structure and the second contact structure; a fourth dielectric spacer laterally between the third gate structure and the second contact structure; and a dielectric layer above the first, second and third gate structures, and above at least a portion of the first, second, third and fourth dielectric spacers.
 2. The integrated circuit structure of claim 1, further comprising: a fourth contact structure in contact with the second contact structure.
 3. The integrated circuit structure of claim 2, wherein the fourth contact structure has a top portion wider than a bottom portion.
 4. The integrated circuit structure of claim 1, further comprising: a nitride layer laterally between the second dielectric spacer and the first contact structure.
 5. The integrated circuit structure of claim 4, further comprising: a second nitride layer laterally between the fourth dielectric spacer and the second contact structure.
 6. The integrated circuit structure of claim 1, further comprising: a second dielectric layer above the dielectric layer.
 7. The integrated circuit structure of claim 6, wherein the third contact structure has an uppermost surface co-planar with an uppermost surface of the second dielectric layer.
 8. The integrated circuit structure of claim 1, wherein the dielectric layer is above at least a portion of the first contact structure and the second contact structure.
 9. The integrated circuit structure of claim 1, wherein each of the first, second and third gate structures has an uppermost surface co-planar with an uppermost surface of each of the first and second contact structures.
 10. The integrated circuit structure of claim 1, wherein each of the first, second and third gate structures has an uppermost surface co-planar with an uppermost surface of each of the first, second, third and fourth dielectric spacers.
 11. A method of fabricating an integrated circuit structure, the method comprising: forming a first gate structure; forming a second gate structure laterally spaced apart from the first gate structure; forming a third gate structure laterally spaced apart from the second gate structure; forming a first source or drain region between the first and second gate structures; forming a second source or drain region between the second and third gate structures; forming a first contact structure over the first source or drain region; forming a second contact structure over the second source or drain region; forming a third contact structure in contact with the first contact structure, the third contact structure having a top portion wider than a bottom portion; forming a first dielectric spacer laterally between the first gate structure and the first contact structure; forming a second dielectric spacer laterally between the second gate structure and the first contact structure; forming a third dielectric spacer laterally between the second gate structure and the second contact structure; forming a fourth dielectric spacer laterally between the third gate structure and the second contact structure; and forming a dielectric layer above the first, second and third gate structures, and above at least a portion of the first, second, third and fourth dielectric spacers.
 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: forming a fourth contact structure in contact with the second contact structure.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the fourth contact structure has a top portion wider than a bottom portion.
 14. The method of claim 11, further comprising: forming a nitride layer laterally between the second dielectric spacer and the first contact structure.
 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising: forming a second nitride layer laterally between the fourth dielectric spacer and the second contact structure.
 16. The method of claim 11, further comprising: forming a second dielectric layer above the dielectric layer.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the third contact structure has an uppermost surface co-planar with an uppermost surface of the second dielectric layer.
 18. The method of claim 11, wherein the dielectric layer is above at least a portion of the first contact structure and the second contact structure.
 19. The method of claim 11, wherein each of the first, second and third gate structures has an uppermost surface co-planar with an uppermost surface of each of the first and second contact structures.
 20. The method of claim 11, wherein each of the first, second and third gate structures has an uppermost surface co-planar with an uppermost surface of each of the first, second, third and fourth dielectric spacers. 